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WASHINGTON — Some of the nation’s largest food companies have cut daily calorie counts by an
average of 78 per person, a new study says, more than four times the amount the industry pledged to
slash by next year.

The study sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that between 2007 and 2012, the
total cut in food-product calories was about 6.4 trillion.

Seventy-eight calories would be about the same as an average cookie or a medium apple, and the
federal government estimates an average daily diet at 2,000 calories. The study said the calories
cut averaged out to 78 calories per day for the entire U.S. population.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation signed on to hold the companies accountable, and that group
hired researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to painstakingly count the
calories in almost every single packaged item in the grocery store. To do that, the UNC researchers
used the store-based scanner data of hundreds of thousands of products, commercial databases and
nutrition-facts panels to calculate exactly how many calories the companies were selling.

The researchers aren’t yet releasing the entire study, but they said yesterday that the
companies have exceeded their own goals by a wide margin.

Dr. James Marks, director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the
group is pleased with the results, but the companies “must sustain that reduction, as they’ve
pledged to do, and other food companies should follow their lead.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a nonpartisan philanthropic and research organization that
works to improve the nation’s health.

Even though the companies that made the commitment represent most of the nation’s best-known
food companies, they sold only about a third of all packaged foods and beverages at the beginning
of the study. Missing are many off-label brands sold under the names of retailers, and it’s unknown
whether those products have changed.

It is also unclear how the reduction in calories translates into consumers’ diets. When the
companies made the pledge in 2010, they said one way they would try to reduce calories would be to
change portion sizes in an attempt to persuade consumers to eat less. The companies also said they
would develop new lower-calorie options and change existing products so they have fewer
calories.

Evidence of those efforts are visible on any grocery shelf. Many products now come in
lower-calorie versions, are baked instead of fried, or sold in miniature as well as larger
versions. Meanwhile, better-for-you, lower-calorie foods and beverages have driven financial
performance for many of the companies that took the pledge.

Columbus-based Lancaster Colony, which makes Marzetti salad dressings, dips and croutons, has
introduced many light or fat-free versions of its products. In addition, its recently launched
Simply Dressed line is made with more-healthful ingredients, including extra virgin olive or canola
oils, and without preservatives, trans fats or high-fructose corn syrup, which have become
nutritional no-nos.

Marks said he thinks companies’ efforts to package smaller servings — 100-calorie packs of
snacks, for example — and smaller cans of sugary drinks might have contributed to the reduction in
calories. He said the main contributors most likely were the public’s increasing willingness to buy
morehealthful foods and companies responding to those consumers.

The companies involved are all part of an industry coalition of food businesses called the
Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation that has organized to help reduce obesity. The foundation
pledged to reduce the calories as part of an agreement with a group of nonprofit organizations and
made the 2010 announcement as part of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to combat
childhood obesity.

She said the companies achieved the goal by coming together and also competing to make new
lower-calorie foods. Market studies have shown that many of the more-healthful foods have
outperformed other products, she said.